Observable frequency shifts via spin-rotation coupling

The phase perturbation arising from spin-rotation coupling is developed as a natural extension of the celebrated Sagnac effect. Experimental evidence in support of this phase shift, however, has yet to be realized due to the exceptional sensitivity required. We draw attention to the relevance of a series of experiments establishing that circularly polarized light, upon passing through a rotating half-wave plate, is changed in frequency by twice the rotation rate. These experiments may be interpreted as demonstrating the role of spin-rotation coupling in inducing this frequency shift, thus providing direct empirical verification of the coupling of the photon helicity to rotation. A neutron interferometry experiment is proposed which would be sensitive to an analogous frequency shift for fermions. In this arrangement, polarized neutrons enter an interferometer containing two spin flippers, one of which is rotating while the other is held stationary. An observable beating in the transmitted neutron beam intensity is predicted.Comment: LaTeX, 15 pages with 4 PostScript figures, submitted to Phys. Lett.

Housing and infrastructure for indigenous Australians

If Australia had carried out a quinquennial census in 1776 or a survey of Australian housing in 1777 it is almost certain that all of the dwellings would have been classified as ‘improvised’ (Ross, 1987, especially Chapter 3), and any inventory of physical infrastructure would have shown it to be absent. By 1994, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Survey (NATSIS), the most careful inventory of Indigenous households1 ever conducted, recorded only 2 per cent of their dwellings as improvised, though some of the 6 per cent ‘other’ and ‘not stated’ dwellings may have been of the same kind. But not many, because 95 per cent of dwellings had a bathroom or shower, 96 per cent running water, 96 per cent electricity or gas, 96 per cent at least one toilet and 82 per cent were on a sealed road (ABS, 1996). On the face of it this is a remarkable improvement in the housing of Indigenous Australians, but it has brought problems as well as benefits. Even after a more detailed investigation, it represents a remarkable transformation. Some of the change has occurred as a result of Indigenous people moving into conventional housing in towns and cities. This paper concentrates on the period since the 1960s and on the northern parts of Australia where many people lived traditional lifestyles until recent decades. Especially in the past twenty years there has been a transformation in the living conditions of Indigenous people in the north, including those in rural and remote areas. None of which is to deny that severe problems remain with Indigenous housing.Australian Policy Online (APO)'s Linked Data II project, funded by the Australian Research Council, with partners at the ANU Library, Swinburne University and RMIT

A tale of two cities : public land ownership in Canberra and Stockholm

Public ownership and development of land is a powerful means of controlling the development of an urban area, avoiding high speculative costs of land for housing and public purposes, and siphoning increases in land values that accompany urban growth into the public purse. In Stockholm and Canberra, the balance between these three objectives in the use of public land has differed over time. Control of development has become dominant in Canberra while financial objectives have continued to be important in Stockholm. Whereas public ownership and leasehold tenure of developed land have been used by Stockholm City Council as a means of maintaining a public role in the land market following urban development, the Federal Government in Canberra have done this to a much smaller extent. The City of Stockholm has been an active ground landlord; the Government in Canberra has been almost completely passive, using lease conditions solely as a means of controlling land use. The paper explores historical reasons for the difference between the two cities. Importantly, both the initiative and financial responsibility were taken locally in Stockholm but by the national government in relation to its national capital, Canberra.Australian Policy Online (APO)'s Linked Data II project, funded by the Australian Research Council, with partners at the ANU Library, Swinburne University and RMIT

The costs of urban physical infrastructure services

The traditional methods of funding physical infrastructure - roads, public transport, water, sewerage, drainage, electricity, gas, telephones and garbage disposal - have involved varying combinations of loans amortised from current revenue, property taxes, user charges, access charges, developer charges, fuel taxes and subsidies from general tax revenue. These methods of funding have come under pressure in recent years for a number of reasons: shortages of government capital funds, pressures to reduce taxes, and attempts to make the funding systems more equitable and to use it to increase efficiency in the supply of these services and to reduce their adverse effects on the environment

Achievement of home ownership among post-war Australian cohorts

There has been concern for many years that it has been becoming more difficult for people to afford to buy a home. Despite this, the proportion of home owners among Australian households has remained much the same for some twenty years or more. In part, this is probably because the longterm rewards from being a home owner have increased at the same time as the costs of becoming an owner. This paper examines in some detail the factors which have affected the ability of people to become owners. It uses a unique set of data which were gathered in a survey which collected retrospective information about the experience of women and men aged 20 to 60 over their adult life. The paper shows that more recent cohorts of women have become owners at younger ages than earlier cohorts. There is limited evidence that, in recent years, women who worked for a longer time after marriage, and men with higher incomes and higher occupations, were able to become owners more quickly. This may point to home ownership becoming increasingly confined to those on higher incomes, whether from high individual incomes or from having two incomes in household

Estimating Indigenous housing need for public funding allocation: a multi-measure approach

This paper advocates a multi-measure approach to Indigenous housing need for the purposes of public funding allocation. It has been developed from three reports examining Indigenous housing need undertaken in 1998 and 1999. The first part of the paper elaborates on the context in which those reports were undertaken, including the concerns of Indigenous people in southern/urban areas that some dimensions of their needs were not being captured by earlier exercises emphasising bedroom need measures. It outlines our multi-measure approach intended to pick up on some of these other dimensions of housing need. The second section of the paper reports on homelessness, overcrowding, and affordability need measures in different parts of Australia, as estimated from the 1996 Census. It finds that these measures do have very different geographic distributions, thus vindicating the concerns of southern/urban Indigenous people. This section also costs the homelessness, overcrowding and affordability measures of housing need for Indigenous Australians in different parts of Australia in comparable terms. The third section of the paper examines the incidence of these three need measures across different housing tenures, from owning and buying to private, public and community rental. These too are costed in comparable terms. The fourth section of the paper compares Indigenous and non-Indigenous housing need according to the homelessness, overcrowding and affordability measures using data from the 1996 Census. The fifth section examines Indigenous housing need as measured from the 1991 and 1996 Censuses. The final section of this paper reflects on some limits and limitations of allocating Indigenous housing funding according to need, even with a multi-measure approach. It notes several other dimensions of housing need in which we have not yet been able to estimate nationwide measures. It notes the policy paradox that some measures of need may go up, while others, through policy intervention, go down. Also it notes that the standards used in this needs analysis are drawn from non-Indigenous social circumstances and may not reflect the aspirations or values of all Indigenous Australians. Finally it notes that to fund always on the basis of need may, over time, be to penalise those who are doing best at addressing need and reward those who are not. Some countervailing principle of public funding allocation on the basis of 'capacity to deliver' may also be required

Estimating Indigenous housing need for public funding allocation: A multi-measure approach

This paper advocates a multi-measure approach to Indigenous housing need for the purposes of public funding allocation. It has been developed from three reports examining Indigenous housing need undertaken in 1998 and 1999. The first part of the paper elaborates on the context in which those reports were undertaken, including the concerns of Indigenous people in southern/urban areas that some dimensions of their needs were not being captured by earlier exercises emphasising bedroom need measures. It outlines our multi-measure approach intended to pick up on some of these other dimensions of housing need. The second section of the paper reports on homelessness, overcrowding, and affordability need measures in different parts of Australia, as estimated from the 1996 Census. It finds that these measures do have very different geographic distributions, thus vindicating the concerns of southern/urban Indigenous people. This section also costs the homelessness, overcrowding and affordability measures of housing need for Indigenous Australians in different parts of Australia in comparable terms. The third section of the paper examines the incidence of these three need measures across different housing tenures, from owning and buying to private, public and community rental. These too are costed in comparable terms. The fourth section of the paper compares Indigenous and non-Indigenous housing need according to the homelessness, overcrowding and affordability measures using data from the 1996 Census. The fifth section examines Indigenous housing need as measured from the 1991 and 1996 Censuses. The final section of this paper reflects on some limits and limitations of allocating Indigenous housing funding according to need, even with a multi-measure approach. It notes several other dimensions of housing need in which we have not yet been able to estimate nationwide measures. It notes the policy paradox that some measures of need may go up, while others, through policy intervention, go down. Also it notes that the standards used in this needs analysis are drawn from non-Indigenous social circumstances and may not reflect the aspirations or values of all Indigenous Australians. Finally it notes that to fund always on the basis of need may, over time, be to penalise those who are doing best at addressing need and reward those who are not. Some countervailing principle of public funding allocation on the basis of 'capacity to deliver' may also be required

Bayesian algorithms for recovering structure from single-particle diffraction snapshots of unknown orientation: a comparison

The advent of X-ray Free Electron Lasers promises the possibility to determine the structure of individual particles such as microcrystallites, viruses and biomolecules from single-shot diffraction snapshots obtained before the particle is destroyed by the intense femtosecond pulse. This program requires the ability to determine the orientation of the particle giving rise to each snapshot at signal levels as low as ~10-2 photons/pixel. Two apparently different approaches have recently demonstrated this capability. Here we show they represent different implementations of the same fundamental approach, and identify the primary factors limiting their performance.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure

Pharmacologic therapy for vitamin D deficiency

Cholecalciferol (vitamin D3) supplementation should be used for vitamin D repletion because it may be more effective in preventing nonvertebral fractures. (Strength of Recommendation [SOR]: B, based on subgroup analysis of randomized controlled trials [RCTs].) Cholecalciferol produces higher serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels than ergocalciferol (vitamin D2). Vitamin D therapy may be given daily or weekly with equal effectiveness; the dosage depends on the degree of deficiency. (SOR: C, based on an RCT and cohort study.) The cumulative dosage is more important than dosing frequency, so the choice of daily, weekly, or monthly dosing can be based on patient preference. (SOR: C, based on an RCT.) Vitamin D levels should be rechecked after three months to ensure adequate response. (SOR: C, based on an observational study.

Leasehold policies and land use planning in Canberra

With self-government, a worldwide reputation as a beautiful, planned city, and a stable base of people and jobs, Canberra has achieved much. The time has come, not only for birthday congratulations, but also for a look to the future. In particular, we ask how the public sector-now the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Government-should participate in the growth and development of this future Canberra? More specifically, given the fact that all land is publicly owned and leased to private users, how could the ACT Government best manage this asset